Mercy Me
by Spunky Lily
Summary: What if Helen was pregnant in 'Drive, He Said? Well, a little more than nine years after, the youngest Girardi, a hopeless romantic, tries to play matchmaker to her big sister and Adam. AdamJoan GraceLuke
1. It's Okay Somehow

**Disclaimer:** You don't know how happy I'd be if I got paid for stuff like this… but, sadly, _Joan of Arcadia_ isn't mine. Neither is Chris Marquette pouts. But I _do_ own Mercy and Kal… they're mine… fwahaha!

**Author's Note:** Heh, Sullen Lily decides to start _another_ fic. She's crazy. And likes to speak in third person. I'll update on one of two conditions: if the first chapter gets ten or more reviews, or once I finish _No Words Here_.

Oh yeah, and the story starts with an alternate ending to 'Drive, He Said'.

**P.S.:** SparkingDiamond, if you're reading this (or anyone who's reading _No Words Here_) I'm in the process of writing a longer than normal update.

* * *

**Mercy Me**

**Prologue: It's Okay Somehow**

_"Nothing is too wonderful to be true."_

_—Michael Faraday_

* * *

Joan Girardi's mind was racing with anxiety and thousands of unspoken thoughts as she laid on the couch in her living room. Today has been a hectic day, to say the least, and with everything on her mind that night, she couldn't possibly go to sleep. She remained awake with the desire to know what her father's condition was. 

The door opened, with a slight whine coming from the hinges. "Mom?" Joan called.

"It's almost three A.M.," Helen informed her, with a rather motherly concern in her voice. "You should be asleep."

Joan took this time to not allow herself to care about that. "Where's Dad?" she questioned.

"They're keeping him overnight for observation, but he is fine, honey," Helen replied, with much relief. "You don't have to worry."

"Was anything broken?"

"No, but... apparently everything is almost broken," she sounded a bit amused. "Was that really the best he could come up with? Ram himself into a pole? I mean, what are the odds?"

"One in twenty-two million, nine hundred fifty-seven thousand, four-hundred eighty," Joan replied automatically, then explained herself. "I spent most of the day with Luke. He won the trimathelon. You know why?" she asked, not sounding pleased with the answer already. "'Cause he did a problem based on me getting my driver's license and crashing."

"Tomorrow, we will have a talk about the rules, about how we don't just drive around for the fun of it."

Joan paused, a knot tying in her stomach. "Mom…" she began uncertainly. "Y-You left a pregnancy test in the wastebasket…" she trailed off.

"Why would you go digging through the garbage?" Helen asked curiously.

"I didn't," Joan replied defiantly. "Luke did. He thought it was mine." Helen sensed the slight horror in her daughter's voice.

"Why? Are you sexually active?"

"Why would you think that?" Joan returned the question.

"Well, Luke thought it, and evidently he's a genius." A fair answer.

"Not at everything," she responded. "And you're changing the subject."

Helen released a heavy sigh. "I am."

"Wow," was all Joan could say, and in her fatigue, decided to add something she almost held back. "I can't believe you guys… still… you know…" she cringed.

Joan's mother almost smiled. "You _should_ get to bed… you have school in the morning."

"Don't remind me." She groaned, already off the couch and skipping up the stairs.

"Joan…" Helen whispered, and her daughter halted on the top step. "Try to act surprised tomorrow…"

* * *

**Author's Note:** It's _so_ short, I know! But it's a prologue, after all… and it's not much. But I _promise_ it will get better. So much better. 

**Next Chapter:** Nine year jump into the future; Soap opera obsessions; and a hat named Fred


	2. So Far Away

**Author's Note:** Thanks for the reviews, guys! I felt inspired, so here's the first chapter

* * *

**Mercy Me**

**Chapter One: So Far Away**

_"Now we've all grown up_

_Gone on and moved away_

_Nothing I can do about it_

_Nothing I can say_

_To bring us back to where we were when life was not this hard_

_Looking back it all just seems so far_

_So far away…"_

_—Yellowcard _

* * *

_Dear Adam,_

_When are you coming home from Washington D.C.? Fred and I miss you!_

_Tootles,_

_Mercy_

_And Fred, too._

__

Mercy Girardi stuffed the tiny, unusually short letter into a purple envelope from her stationary set, sealing it with a sticker. Once she'd examined the package thoroughly with her light brown eyes and adjusted her glasses, she sprinted downstairs from her bedroom to the kitchen, where her mother sat at the table.

"Mom, d'you have a stamp?" Mercy questioned rapidly, resting her hands on the counter.

An eyebrow rose on Helen's face. "What's the big hurry?"

"I _have_ to send this letter! And if I don't send it soon, the mailman's gonna be here and I won't be able to send it until tomorrow! And I can't wait for another twenty-four hours! It's _important_." the eight-and-five-sixths-year-old rambled.

"Don't worry, I've got one in my purse," Helen smiled at her daughter, who gave a melodramatic sigh of relief. Handing over the stamp sheet, Mercy quickly decided on the one monumenting the Midwestern states and stuck it on.

"Thanks, Mommy!" Mercy shouted, grabbing her oversized backpack and draping it from her petite shoulder, scampering for the front door, but not making to it.

"Mercy!"

"What?" she shot back, backing up a few steps to achieve eye contact with her mother.

"Breakfast?" Helen suggested.

"I'm not hungry." Mercy chastised.

"You're going to school," her mother replied. "You need your brain food."

"But I'm not hungry. And I need to put this in the mail box, then go to the bus stop, 'cause Kal's gonna show me conclusive evidence," she paused, smiling at her use of 'conclusive evidence'. Her daddy was always saying that when he was talking about cop stuff. "…That the tooth fairy doesn't exist!" said Mercy, as if this was the most important news in the entire world. "_Please_." She added for a convincing effect, knowing the significance of the magical p-word.

Helen sighed, falling prey to Mercy's point. "Fine." Her daughter gave, in return, a genuine, suspiciously photogenic, smirk. She fled in a flash, only to return a few seconds later.

"Mom, where's Fred? And do you have that tape in the VCR to recordmy soaps?"

"Of course." Helen answered the second inquiry, then proceeded to point to the living room. He's on the couch. Right where you left him." Rule number one with Mercy; never refer to Fred, Mercy's first present, a knitted winter hat, as an 'it'. Fred may have been an inanimate object to the rest of the world, but to Helen's youngest offspring, he was the object of her affections.

Hardly any moments had passed when Mercy returned, grasping Fred with her miniature grip, even small for a girl who was turning nine in three months. "Pigtails?" Mercy requested, beaming.

"I thought you were in a hurry."

"I changed my mind," she replied lightly, sitting on one of the kitchen stools.

"That's alright with me." Helen smiled, then disappeared for a few seconds, returning with two hair bands and a brush. Working expertly on her daughter's long, deep espresso colored mane, she formed two spouts of hair and fitted Fred onto her head. There were two little holes Mercy had severed in the frayed knit with scissors made exclusively for her pigtails.

"Thanks," Mercy added in a rush, finally deciding on leaving, her newly fashioned pigtails floating through the air as she sprinted.

* * *

"… And I found _all_ of my baby teeth under my parents' bed!" Kalvin finished as he and his best friend, Mercy, trotted upon a section of broken, crooked pavement at the street corner that served as a bus stop.

"Why would our parents do that?" Mercy asked after a while. "I mean, they could just ask for our teeth if they wanted them so bad."

"I don't know," the boy confessed, running a hand through his messy, murky reddish hair as he paced. "It's a conspiracy!"

Kalvin Chapman, like Mercy, was a cop's kid. That was, in fact, how they became the best of friends, since their fathers both worked among Arcadia's finest. He also was a law enforcer in the making, his obsession with crimes almost surpassing his best friend's obsession with soap operas and romance.

"Maybe they use our teeth for something. Like necklaces." Mercy suggested as they walked home from their bus stop, both genuinely happy that they had no more school until September, since today was their last day of second grade.

"Why would they make tooth necklaces?" Kal asked incredulously.

"I dunno," she shrugged. "I guess they look pretty, like this one necklace my mom has that Joan stole once before I was even born and mom got real mad…" Mercy trailed off, seeing the lack of interest from her comrade. "Joan and Adam are supposed to be comin' home for the summer…"

"Cool. You'll have the whole clan."

Joan, Mercy's elder and only sister, was away, finishing a few extra years of college somewhere in Virginia. And Adam, her former boyfriend and Mercy's idol, was in Washington D.C., attempting to make a living. It just wasn't right, though. They were apart, perfect for each other, too. They used to be together, but why weren't they now? It wasn't fair. Mercy wanted Joan and Adam together forever. They were like Ryan and Marissa, on an old show she'd grown fond of called _The O.C._; they should never be apart! Her older brother, Luke, and his girlfriend, Grace had been together since before Mercy was even born, and they still were!

"Yeah…" Mercy replied distantly, thinking of this.

"Woo hoo. Merc?" Kalvin waved his hand in front of her face.

She shook her head for a bit, then looked at Kalvin.

"We're going to have the best summer ever, right?"

Kalvin nodded.

"Well, I have a perfect plan…"


End file.
